1. Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tablet storage and take-out apparatus which stores various kinds of tablets and which fills a vial with tablets in accordance with prescription data so that the vial can be taken out.
2. Description of Related Art
As a conventional apparatus for filling a vial with tablets, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H10-33636 discloses a drug filler, which has double inner and outer drums whose outer surfaces are fitted with many tablet feeders, guides tablets discharged from these tablet feeders inside the inner and outer drums, introduces the tablets through a drop guide path to a hopper provided below the inner and outer drums, and then fills the tablets into vials supplied from a vial supply part. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H11-70901 discloses a tablet filling apparatus, which has a vertical wall whose surface is fitted with many tablet feeders, drops, through a drop guide path, tablets discharged from these tablet feeders into a transfer container, and transfers the transfer container to a filling part, and, on the other hand, fills the tablets contained in the transfer container into a vial transferred from a vial supply part to the filling part.
With the apparatus disclosed in JP H10-33636, since a shutter above the hopper or the transfer container is closed while tablets are being discharged to the hopper or the transfer container, tablets for the next prescription can be discharged, but tablets for the further next prescription cannot be discharged.
Moreover, JP H10-33636, a large-size hopper needs to be provided below the inner and outer drums in order to receive tablets dropped from all the tablet feeders, leading to upsizing of the apparatus accordingly. The apparatus disclosed in JP H11-70901 also requires a tablet container for receiving tablets discharged from the tablets feeders and a belt conveyor for transferring the tablet container, thus resulting in upsizing of the apparatus.